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Sunday, April 9, 2017

Dinosaur Ghost: Evolution

Many of you know that Dinosaur Ghost has gone through various incarnations over the years. Originally a book, it was later condensed into a story written in tweets. As of this posting, it is in the process of became a series of short, crudely animated cartoons. This post serves as a history of Dinosaur Ghost and a guide to where I am going with this very silly idea.Dinosaur Ghost was hatched in 2009 as one half of a comic novel. The book, as conceived, was composed of two parodies: one science fiction, one romance. The romance half was called The Oiliest Secret, and it was the story of a lusty letter carrier and the string of scorned lovers stalking her. In between chapters, I started a new novel called Dinosaur Ghost, which involved another heroine, who dreams of becoming a paleontologist, but who is thwarted by a woeful lack of qualifications. Her world is turned upside down when she discovers that Dinosaur Ghosts have mysteriously returned from extinction and are eating republicans.

The Oiliest Secret is a straight romance parody, the kind written by a person who has never actually read a romance novel. Dinosaur Ghost is a science fiction parody and a satire intent on making fun of the kind of person who believes in ghosts, but not dinosaurs.

Eventually, I separated the two novellas. I published Dinosaur Ghost in 2012 as a standalone ebook. It's currently 99 cents at amazon.com and free at smashwords.com. The book trailer can be found at my YouTube channel.

I assumed that Dinosaur Ghost, like its namesake, would lapse into extinction, but the darned thing won't stay dead. Following the rise of Donald Trump, I struggled to process the disastrous election by writing a story called Donald
Trump VS The Dinosaur Ghosts: A Story in 63 Tweets. I also updated all the old versions of my novella to include a chapter in which Trump is eaten by Dinosaur Ghosts.

I stopped making cartoons after my computer died, but recently I downloaded new animation software to my new laptop and decided to animate Dinosaur Ghost. The saga begins anew with Trouble at the
Creationist Museum. As you can tell, the sound quality is not great. You may need to turn up the volume a bit. The quality should improve as I learn to use all the fun software at my disposal. New episodes have been planned and are scheduled to post on a regular basis.

So, you may ask, why do I keep going with this Dinosaur Ghost idea? I guess I just think it's funny. If you think you may agree, go to PoorlyAnimated1's youtube channel and subscribe today. Make sure to peruse all the old videos. If you like twisted, irreverent humor, and you don't mind that the cartoons are badly drawn and the sound is sometimes awful, then this is the channel for you. I plan to keep making cartoons until the Dinosaur Ghost saga runs its course, or until I get bored and move on to something else.